Activated carbon comes in a variety of forms. Recently, it has been made in the form of a fabric known as charcoal cloth and a felted material but, previously it has usually been in the form of granules. Activated carbon is used to adsorb undesirable components from the atmosphere or from a local environment. Activated carbon will also adsorb other components which are not undesirable but which saturate the activated carbon and so prevent it from adsorbing the undesirable components. The principal component which leads to such saturation of activated carbon is water. For example, charcoal cloth can adsorb up to three times its own weight of water and charcoal felt can adsorb up to ten times its own weight of water.
One of the uses of activated carbon is its use in clothing to provide protection against undesirable components and when such clothing is wetted its effectiveness in adsorbing the undesirable components is drastically reduced. Also, the weight of the clothing once it is saturated with water is greatly increased which is a further disadvantage. To overcome this at present, clothing is not made entirely from charcoal cloth and, instead, is formed as a laminate with an outer layer of fabric which typically includes a waterproofing agent such as a silicone and an inside layer of charcoal cloth or felt. Activated carbon is also used in the filters of respirators and other filters and again these tend to become saturated with water so preventing them prematurely from adsorbing undesirable components.